Scott and Manohla Dargis, selected their favorite movies of the year. Spheeris, who once wittily chronicled the decline of Western civilization (in her two rock documentaries by that name) and is now in danger of becoming part of the process, had better luck with "The Beverly Hillbillies." There she could sometimes wink at her material, but "The Little Rascals" does too much winking of its own. Most of the wide-eyed kiddie actors seen here have worked in commercials, which gives "The Little Rascals" a slick, adorable style devoid of spontaneity.If you can, stick around for the much funnier out-takes that accompany the closing credits, with the kids behaving normally and Penelope Spheeris, the director, heard saying things like "Don't look at the camera, sweetie." Now, on the big screen, the precocity becomes exaggerated and the children are aggressively cuter.
Visual ideas don't get much simpler than those of "The Little Rascals," which once depended on raffish children to behave in funny, precocious ways while the camera rolled. But this quaint material has been dragged into the present, picking up an overproduced visual style and the occasional phrase like "bite me" or "boy toy." Along the way, a little innocence is lost, and none of what's gained is worth having. "Is that a cowlick, or are you just glad to see me?" Reba McEntire asks Alfalfa (Bug Hall) in "The Little Rascals." Well, a cowlick is all it used to be.